Truth is often abandonned in favour of sensationalist representations of reality.
- Steve Mayes

It is still widely believed that the camera cannot lie, and that the purest function of the photojournalist is to act as independent witness. From this grows the belief that photographs faithfully depict reality, offering the viewer a complete truth about a visible scene. However, to view a photograph in such a way is to understand only half the truth - and in many instances a half truth is as good as a lie. Photojournalism is a complex medium, requiring complex responses from the viewer. In reading a photograph we do many things: absorb information, impose meaning, experience emotion. This is an active process, with any picture relying on the culture of the photographer mixing with the culture of the viewer, to offer enlightenment about the culture of the subject. What we see in a photograph is only one version of reality; what we understand is only one form of truth. As viewers, we are the weakest part of the communcation process - the better we understand the medium, the better we can understand the world as presented by photography.
- Steve Mayes - Creating Reality, 1992